Archives - 26 June 2017, Monday

WASHINGTON — Powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker announced he is blocking U.S. arms sales to Gulf Cooperation Council member states to pressure a resolution to the escalating row over Qatar. The move threatens to close off a major market for the U.S. defens...

Johan Gustafsson (left), as seen in an AQIM video released in June 2015. Johan Gustafsson, a Swedish national held hostage by al Qaeda in Mali, was released and returned to Sweden earlier today after nearly six years of captivity, according to the Swedish Foreign Ministry. In a statem...

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army and Raytheon have completed a flight test of a high-energy laser system on an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter that was deemed successful, according to a Raytheon statement Monday. The recent test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, “marks the first time...

Another point of divergence from the Islamic State can be found in AQIS’s attitude toward other jihadi groups. Baghdadi’s self-declared caliphate says that groups refusing to join it are apostates. AQIS takes a more inclusive approach, at least in its public rhetoric. AQIS wants other...

LE BOURGET, France — Once Raytheon gets approval from the Pentagon to integrate its GBU-49 guided bomb with the F-35, it will take only a couple months to wrap up the necessary testing, a company official told Defense News on Thursday. The U.S. Air Force, and more recently the Marine ...

The captain of the cargo ship that collided with the U.S. destroyer Fitzgerald earlier this month said in a report that the U.S. warship failed to respond to warning signals or take other evasive maneuvers, Reuters reported Monday. The collision early on June 17 off the coast of Japan...

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WASHINGTON – House appropriators plan to consider a proposed $658.1 billion Pentagon spending bill for 2018 made public Sunday, which kicks off a week packed with defense policy and appropriations action on Capitol Hill. The 160-page proposal, whose total includes $584.2 in base fundi...

A high-energy laser mounted on an Apache AH-64 attack helicopter acquired and hit an unmanned target during a recent firing test at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The test was conducted by Raytheon and the U.S. Army Apache Program Management Office, in collaboration with...

With the successful launch of "eye in the sky" Cartosat-2E satellite with surveillance capabilities last Friday, the total number of satellites being used for military purpose has gone up to 13, an Isro source said. These satellites, which can be used for surveillance and mapping bord...

The HASC proposal is one of several floated on Capitol Hill that blow past the $549 billion budget cap for base defense budgets. That means they all would need Congress to change the law to ease the Budget Control Act — and that requires support from Senate Democrats. House Republican...

The Navy is quietly setting in motion plans to dramatically expand the size of the fleet by adding thousands of sailors who would be needed to meet the Trump administrations goal of a 355-ship Navy. Internally, the Navy is targeting a force as large as 350,000 sailors – up more than 1...

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WASHINGTON, Jun. 26, 2017 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of India for C-17 transport aircraft. The estimated cost is $366.2 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certificati...

A high energy laser mounted on a helicopter shoots a target in groundbreaking test Share Now this is what you call a breakthrough. A high energy laser mounted on an Apache AH-64 attack helicopter acquired and hit an unmanned target. The test was conducted by Raytheon and the U.S. Army...

TEL AVIV, Israel — The U.S. Army has joined the Israeli Air Force in a sweeping investigation of AH-64 Apache helicopters following Israel’s discovery earlier this month of a crack in the rear rotor blade of one of its aircraft, defense and industry sources here say. In interviews her...

The U.S. Navy Reserve's F/A-18A+ Hornets are relics of the Reagan era, but the fleet still uses them to play the bad guy in air-to-air combat simulations. Now the House Armed Services Committee wants the U.S. Navy to plan on replacing them, according to a version of the 2018 National ...

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Acting Secretary of the Navy of the Navy Sean J. Stackley has ordered that the “National Ensign of the United States” be flown at half-staff from dawn to dusk June 27 on all Navy and Marine Corps buildings and installations as well as on all naval vessels. The order comes in honor of ...

LONDON — Nearly 20 years after the British government first decided to build two large aircraft carriers to revive the Royal Navy’s global air strike capability, the first of those warships, HMS Queen Elizabeth, has left the dock at Rosyth, Scotland, to start sea trials. The 70,000 to...

The first American air-to-air kill involving manned aircraft in almost two decades opens up a new chapter in American warfare — and perhaps a more dangerous phase of the air war against the Islamic State terror group. Nobody knows yet what the ramifications will be from the June 18 sh...

A country dependent on the sea Much has been said about the HMS Queen Elizabeth. But some key facts get lost in the noise. Like the reality that the UK is an island nation – something that affects the livelihood of every single person living in Britain. And that, despite all the advan...

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MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has successfully test-fired a submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile. The Defence Ministry said the Yuri Dolgoruky nuclear-powered submarine launched the Bulava missile Monday from a submerged position in the Barents Sea. The minist...

History was made today as HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first QE Class aircraft carrier, set sail from Rosyth to commence first stage sea trials off the north-east of Scotland. Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: “This is a historic moment for the UK as our new aircraft carrier take...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin with full diplomatic bells and whistles when the two are in Germany for a multinational summit next month. But the idea is exposing deep divisions within the administration on the best way to approac...

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s military and procurement officials are planning to formalize the country's intent to buy up to 36 armed trainer aircraft, the Hurkus, procurement officials said. Once the military and procurement bureaucracy agree on the specifications of the required aircraf...

KAHUKU TRAINING AREA, Hawaii -- Bravo and Echo Companies, of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment, faced off against each other in a simulated assault training at Kahuku Training Area (KTA) on June 18 and 19, 2017 as part of the Lava Forge exercise. Acting as a cohesive unit, ...

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Airbus Helicopters has delivered the fifteenth and final H145M multirole helicopter to the German Bundeswehr, the company announced on 26 June. The last of 15 H145M helicopters for the German forces was handed over in late June. (Airbus Helicopters) The helicopters have been delivered...

WASHINGTON — The House version of the defense authorization bill contains a provision that would allow the U.S. Defense Department to sole source a contract for the U.S. Air Force’s UH-1N Huey replacement helicopter. The proposed language, released today in the House Armed Services Co...

This framing serves to flatter two sensibilities: one right and one vaguely left. It satisfies the right-wing nationalist idea that America only goes to war because it’s compelled to by forces outside of its own control; the reluctant warrior, the gentle giant who will only attack whe...